You know it is easy to get seafood if you live on the coast, but I always wonder what other foods are popular in various areas. I ask because tonight we went to CiCi’s Pizza, which I just read on the website is a southeastern establishment.

It is a buffet style pizza place - they have salad, pizza and then dessert. They have more then pepperoni or cheese pizza too - I had a slice of spinach and though I ate the whole slice, it was just okay. I’m not really a spinach kind of person but this little girl in front of me declared it was the best so I had to try. But they also have mac and cheese pizza (totally weird I think), barbeque and some kind of chicken one.
And of course pizza has a large portion of bread but the desserts - yeah also made up of bread. One was an apple crisp on top of a pizza dough, another was cinnamon bun, another was basically breadsticks with loads of frosting - and I mean loads.

We all know you aren’t supposed to eat *that* much bread, especially in one sitting. LA Weight Loss considers that a starch and for slices of bread I can have two a day, but not at the same time (sticking to the plan I mean).  I know that other pizza places have multiple things using bread - cinnamon sticks for one - but for some reason seeing everything all in a row like that made me realize people don’t think about the amount of bread they are eating.

I’m thinking I may eat other starches this week to make up for eating pizza and pizza bread stuff for dessert tonight. Even if the apple crisp one was soooo good.

I’ve been amazed that we have had meals the past few days - the fridge was empty. Empty as in we were down to a half gallon of milk, mozzeralla cheese, celery, carrots, and condiments. Maybe there was a couple other things, but I don’t think so. But we still had meals because of our very well stocked freezer and pantry! The chicken in the crockpot the other night? All from the freezer/pantry. Don’t tell Chris but he was right about keeping them stocked up!

So today we went grocery shopping and the fridge is full and the pantry and freezer are looking like mini-stores again. I don’t really mind because it does get eaten but with us possibly moving soon (I know, I haven’t said anything! I will soon, I promise) I wonder what to do with it. When we moved the last time we just ate what we had and right before we left we gave our can food to a friend. This time we could be looking at A LOT of food left over. I am just thinking of the money side of it - we spent so much buying all of it, having it left would be a waste of money. Who cares if we would eat it, I have no idea if they will move it for us though I am sure if they did it would keep.

I have to stop thinking about the money. Moving is stressful enough without thinking about non-moving related things! This move will be so different then the last.

Of course we could just have a big going away party and eat it all.

My friend Jen posted about creative ways to get your kids to eat lunch - she found a cool product with separate compartments inside. I love it! We don’t have to pack lunches since we homeschool but this summer we did a week long camp. The kids each got a new lunch bag which they loved, but of course it was just one large compartment. We still had to separate their food into baggies or a sandwich container and then put it in the lunch bag. I don’t think they minded but I have to admit it annoyed me.

Chris packs a lunch to take to work, but he is much less picky then any kid. We have Tupperware containers that have  separate compartments so that works but he also doesn’t take a variety of things each day like kids usually like. I usually send him with leftovers.

Do you have to pack a lunch? What are your ideas?

I made the oh so good crockpot chicken again today. The house was a big mess and I knew it would take a bit to pick up and clean - cooking dinner wasn’t something I also wanted to have to do. I used the same recipe and once again I was amazed at how good it is!

This time we ate it in a tortilla, no extras though. I wonder how this would be with tortilla chips? How am I supposed to start eating differently when there are great recipes like this out there! Maybe I should just join the Y again and work with a personal trainer, I knew we got I think ten free sessions and we could always buy more.

I’ve been looking over the November menus from Menu Planning Central. We are going to Costco tomorrow to do the grocery shopping and it feels like I have to check so many places to see what we need to get - the menus for what I want to make, my own meal planning list, the pantry and the freezer. But I really don’t want to buy any junk food tomorrow and I don’t want to buy doubles of what we already have. Buying doubles at Costco is bad because it is already so much food!

I’ve really been trying to use my crockpot a lot lately. I just don’t feel like cooking like ‘usual’ and the crockpot is such a saver! I just found a chicken recipe that I wanted to try and I just can’t find the blog it was on. I knew the ingredients (chicken, salsa, cream of mushroom, taco seasoning) and just did a search for them on Google.

This blog post was the first thing that came up - Crockpot Chicken - so I followed that recipe. My chicken was partially (or maybe even mostly) thawed but it was perfectly fine. It all ended up staying in the crockpot on warm for a bit (my crockpot goes to warm once the time is done) because we were at a birthday party. After shredding the chicken - which was so super easy, it just about fell apart - and adding the rest of the ingredients, I think it was one of the best meals I’ve ever made. Seriously. And I think I’m a pretty darn good cook.

Try that recipe and let me know what you think. I didn’t take a picture but also didn’t serve it with lettuce or cheese. I think it still tasted awesome. I’m going to check my recipes to see what other crockpot ones I have, it was great to just throw a few things together and have dinner ready in what felt like minutes!

Finally today I made one of the breakfast sandwiches I’ve been meaning to make forever now. And I only have two words to say - SO GOOD! I fried an egg on the stove, popped the english muffin into the toaster and grabbed our shredded cheese out of the fridge. A few brief minutes later and I was eating - and I’m going to make the same thing tomorrow but for everyone instead of just me. I have a bunch of english muffins and I’m debating making a bunch to throw in the freezer, they are so quick to make but then having them already made would eliminate the dishes I suppose.

Plus we have really been going through milk lately! I’m not sure what is going on with the kids but they are drinking a gallon a day or two days. I know you can freeze milk but I haven’t tried yet. It’s just as easy for Chris to swing by the store on the way home from work.

How do you snack? I am a muncher. I grabbed tortilla chips and salsa tonight, other nights it has been popcorn (sometimes with m&ms) but I do go healthy too, carrots and dip or celery and peanut butter. My Grandma used to just eat one chip or one handful of popcorn, just one of whatever. I’m sure she is still that way. But I never understood how you can have just one! I can have just one of a piece of good chocolate, but that’s about it.

Of course being a muncher isn’t the best habit to have, it reminds me of eating mindlessly, just eating for no reason, I mean I’m not always hungry, but it’s there. It is emotional eating sometimes, which isn’t good either. I’ve been doing great during the day, eating four small meals rather then snacking on something in the afternoon I have a small something healthy, then dinner. The kids and I have been eating four meals a day for a couple of weeks now, its working out great since they would be snackers otherwise!

Last week the kids and I decided we would start walking every day. We went out on Monday before lunch but it was so hot we didn’t last longer then a few minutes. We talked to our neighbors who said they would love to go with us - and that was the end of it. Twice last week I couldn’t go to sleep before 3AM, which meant I slept in, which was too late for a walk. I figured okay today is a new week, a new start to walking every day.  Waking up early didn’t help, we all woke up early today but that just gave us time to clean up and have a good start to our day and week.

It is starting to cool off here so we can walk later then 9AM, maybe we’ll actually start doing so soon.

I’ve been trying to watch what I eat, I’ve lost a few pounds and need to get back to planning what we are going to eat. We’ve been grocery shopping at Costco, which means we have the equivalent of a small store in our pantry. This weekend we didn’t do that great, we had pizza (a huge one from Costco so we had leftovers for a couple of meals), wings and hot dogs. Not the greatest diet, not by a long shot! I don’t mind cooking but sometimes it feels like we are eating very heavy foods. Maybe we’ll have a salad tonight.

I’ve spent the past few days looking for freezer recipes and it seems like all I’m finding is great breakfast ones! I have found a few dinner recipes and maybe I’m thinking about breakfast when I am searching.

But here is this week’s menu - I’m going grocery shopping tomorrow and hopefully I’ll be able to do a few of the freezer recipes to save for a couple of weeks. I’d love to have enough food stocked up for when my Mom gets here in a month, and I might need the month just to get it down!

Monday - Steak, potatoes, corn
Tuesday - Crockpot Roast w/ veggies
Wednesday - Skillet goulash
Thursday - Crockpot Lasagna (new recipe, crossing my fingers it is good!)
Friday - Chicken Rice Soup (another new recipe, freezer recipe but going to eat it that day)

Click over to MPM to find more recipes shared this week!

I know that I need to eat better and admit I haven’t been. I’m not eating bad but I wonder if I’m eating enough? When I was doing LA Weight Loss I was eating 1200-1400 calories a day, and I was losing weight. I’m sure I’m not eating that much now, or if I am it’s not the same balance that I used to.

I’ve been looking up freezer cooking last night and earlier today. I found a couple of yahoo groups and signed up, hopefully at least one will be good and I can follow along. We are going grocery shopping this weekend after I have a list of either freezer meals, regular meals to cook or a combo of both. I would love to do freezer cooking - can you imagine a freezer full of food that all you have to do is pop it in the oven or microwave! That sounds like something so great to me.

I’ve already found one great breakfast food - basically a mcmuffin type thing but I’m sure oh so much better then Mcd’s. Chris is usually running around in the morning and I would love to send him off with an actual meal rather then a couple of granola bars. I can’t wait to get started - who knew that cooking would be so exciting.

Technorati Tags: freezer cooking

I talked to my Mom who mentioned that her Dr. said vitamin B can give you hot flashes….which is just what my Dr. gave me for the morning sickness! And I’d like to know why she didn’t mention the hot flashes! I’ve had one every day or every other day - not that bad when you look at it I suppose, but annoying nonetheless. I’ve been able to skip taking the vitamin every other day this week which hopefully means I will be able to quit taking it all together pretty soon which means no more hot flashes! Just the regular heat and humidity.

Chris made chicken wings tonight - they were SO good! I was surprised I could eat them - when I was pregnant with the other two I couldn’t eat spicy or greasy foods. But the wings were too good! We also made steaks but I was too full to eat any more. Hopefully it will still taste good tomorrow when I reheat it!